The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

Can someone tell me what the difference is between 10w/30 engine oil and gear oil of the same grade? Is it ok to use engine oil in the final drive ?
Cheers in advance

Per Honda use the same 10w30 oil used in the engine, in the gearbox. Gear oil has more additive for gear protection but, not really needed for the type of gears used in our scooters. Some other manufactures do call for gear oil though, in those applications follow the manufactures recommendation

Thanks a lot for that , I change it regularly ,so will use engine oil I think
Cheers

AFAIK the crankcase and the final drive are linked via the airbox vents so might be an idea to use the same product in both as recommended by Honda.

gn2 wrote:AFAIK the crankcase and the final drive are linked via the airbox vents so might be an idea to use the same product in both as recommended by Honda.

BOOM!!

If that's correct... then that definitely answers the question as to whether using gear oil might be better.

Amazing.

The owners manual specifies engine oil for the final drive.

It turns out that the engine requires slightly less than 1 quart and the remaining amount will fill the final drive gear. So 1 quart will fill both.

Honda as usual just been cheap...! lol , I use 80w90 Motul gear oil in my final drive...

Why use anything other than what Honda suggests? The final drive oil comes out looking as good as it went in - so hardly has a hard life.

iceman wrote:Why use anything other than what Honda suggests? The final drive oil comes out looking as good as it went in - so hardly has a hard life.

+1

My Honda seems to work with any oil.

I bet fish oil would even work. Sockeye salmon oil?

gn2 wrote:AFAIK the crankcase and the final drive are linked via the airbox vents so might be an idea to use the same product in both as recommended by Honda.

What if you eliminated the stock airbox?

Would it be better to run Gear oil? Then again I change the oil every 1k miles no matter what, so maybe just run engine oil in everything. lol

iceman wrote:The final drive oil comes out looking as good as it went in - so hardly has a hard life.

I changed my final drive oil just the other day because it hadn't been done for a while. As we all know, all engine oil quickly turns black in car or bike engines - but the engine oil I'd previously used in the final drive LITERALLY did still look the same colour as when it went in - which I found quite remarkable considering that it had probably done 30,000 to 40,000km.

iceman wrote:Why use anything other than what Honda suggests? The final drive oil comes out looking as good as it went in - so hardly has a hard life.

I haven't changed my final drive yet. Definitely doing that very, very soon.

But most people say that the STOCK oil smells like gear oil!! It's a pretty distinct smell, so then the question becomes... Why does Honda recommend something different from what they use from the factory?

grndslm wrote:
But most people say that the STOCK oil smells like gear oil!! It's a pretty distinct smell, so then the question becomes... Why does Honda recommend something different from what they use from the factory?

Because Honda wants to save money when you take the bike to them for a service, but still charge you an arm and a leg...lol, also no need to stock gear oil in their dealerships, just use the same same , who cares...!

I know in heavy class 8 trucks pulling 100,000 lbs plus, the manufacturers recommend a 500,000 mile change interval with a synthetic 90 weight gear oil.
Scaling it down to a pcx that extra 10/30 engine oil one has left after an oil change is probably fine for your final drive.

Just make sure you change it every 1000 km or buy a new motorcycle to go to Starbucks.

Don't be tempted to use EP oils as the additives are quite nasty and the final drive isn't designed for them.